Not So Strange Bedfellows

Only weeks ago defunct Hotel Easton part-owner Peter Koehler was threatening to run against Tom Goldsmith in Easton's next mayoral election - a threat Koehler withdrew with the mayor's promise to buy him and partner Theordore Kheel a parking deck for the former hotel.

Tom Goldsmith would make good on his promissory note, not with city of Easton money, mind: That would come from a $2.35 million general obligation bond floated by Northampton County and guaranteed by the county's taxpayers.

Bait and Switch

What began as a $1.8 million bond, Tom Goldsmith quickly escalated by half a million dollars. As Koehler and Kheel demanded more and more money for their risky scheme, Tom extorted more and more ransom - from the county's taxpayers, not Easton's, though city taxpayers pay county taxes, too.

Though Easton's mayoral election is still two years away, Tom is already resorting to bribery to co-opt potential challenges. As all good mayor-extortionists do, Tom plans far ahead, and collects, even if he has to break taxpayers' kneecaps to do so.

Tom needs the extra half million dollars to buy two Northampton Street buildings. These are the buildings separated from the former hotel by a vacant parking lot owned by the hotel.

County Council Prez Wayne A. Grube (WAG) Bamboozled by Knavery Opportunity Zone (KOZ)

Easton Zoning Officer Robert O'Neil misrepresented this lot to Northampton County Council to extract its approval of the Easton Keystone Opportunity Zone, or KOZ: O'Neil testified to county council that the KOZ included no vacant parcels of land.

County Council President Wayne A. Grube warned O'Neil that any misstatement of fact in his presentation would be cause at any future date to disqualify the Easton KOZ.

These misrepresentations demand that Grube table the entire $5.3 million bond proposal.

Real Estate Speculators Eye Next KOZ Bonanza, the Governor Wolf Building

A flyer appearing in downtown Easton store-front windows observes that the $2.35 million bond issue would serve as incentive to demolish two more buildings in the Historic District.

This is why Tom Goldsmith needs a half million dollars more than his original figure of $1.8 million: to compensate the owners for the loss of their buildings.

What is the significance of vacant lots? The KOZ exempts a property from property taxes on the improvements. This is a financial windfall for the lot owner because everything built on it from the ground up is an improvement, exempt from property tax. (In fact, KOZ properties are exempt from all taxes until the year 2010.)

How much economic incentive do Koehler and Kheel need? Each partner holds a pig under each arm and still cries for more.

Friends in High Places

Indeed, Koehler and Kheel also benefit from a $2 million grant State Representative Robert Freeman obtained for the former hotel in 1982. Just this year, Freeman could watch through the plate glass window of his office on Northampton Street, the orange chute suck one million dollars in furnishings and improvements from the derelict hotel's upper floors into Waste Management, Inc.'s waiting dumpsters on South Green Street below.

The remaining $1 million of that public investment - in the form of salvageable goods -was auctioned off on the sidewalk in front of the hotel by Koehler and Kheel, who then pocketed the proceeds.

The financially strapped Easton Parking Authority lacks funds to build a deck for Koehler and Kheel. Its finances are as stable as its dilapidated Pine Street garage, on which the authority still owes more than a million bucks. As for the county, it's not that fat financially that it can afford to buy multi-million-dollar parking decks for other municipalities.